Bruce 1,951 1.7k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 In his pressers Carrick has been very keen to say he didn't change the formation against Villa. Talks about tweaking the starting position of Engel a little but that's all. I think he's determined to either deflect the issue or has decided that he doesn't have a "formation" as such. I think his point might be that our normal formation is 3-2-5 when attacking and 4-5-1 when defending. Normally our right back stays back as a 3 when attacking but against Villa he used the right back (Jones) as part of the 5 and had Engel hang back more. According to Carrick then the formation was Glover Jones RVDB Clarke Engel Hackney Barlaser Rogers Greenwood Bangura Coburn If Carrick is to be believed, it was more that Hackney and Barlaser stayed in their "pocket" more than usual to shield the defence. If he's not telling porkies, then I think we'll see a similar set up against Chelsea. Main question is whether Clarke can manage two games in 4 days. Possibly not, which leaves us with Glover Jones FRY RVDB Engel Howson Barlaser Hackney Crooks Bangura Coburn I think he'll hope to keep it tight for 70-80 minutes then try and pinch a goal using Lath's pace and the secret weapon that he has kept under wraps for just this occasion: Hoppe! (Well, maybe not Hoppe.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnaby 1,032 2.1k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 1 hour ago, TeaCider24 said: I think it's an understandable mistake to make, to be honest. We're probably only Middlesbrough because of a spelling mistake on the town charter in the first place, we're one of the only places in the world with "brough" instead of "borough" or "burgh" and we always call ourselves Boro, not a surprise that people who hear it said out loud might think it's spelt the regular way. It used to wind me up, but it's an easy enough error. To my eternal shame My ship ( HMS Jupiter) was going in as Adopted ship for the adoption ceremony Skipper looked at the Navigating officer and said we have a young Rating onboard from Middlesbrough don't we....ask him the correct spelling I told them it was Middlesborough...I never ever lived that down in fact every rubbish job that came up I got It...I even got sent over to a Russian trawler during the cod war to assist the Fishery Protection officer who was legless on Vodka (It was customary for the inspecting officer to have a small tot of Vodka) after boarding 19 trawlers He was getting our skipper quite worried so they piped for me to go with him Unarmed and unable to speak Russian...Got him there & back in one piece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob 5,290 8.2k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/pochettino-on-the-challenge-posed-by-middlesbrough-learning-from-preston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthernSmoggie 4,443 6.2k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 23 minutes ago, Bruce said: In his pressers Carrick has been very keen to say he didn't change the formation against Villa. Talks about tweaking the starting position of Engel a little but that's all. I think he's determined to either deflect the issue or has decided that he doesn't have a "formation" as such. I think his point might be that our normal formation is 3-2-5 when attacking and 4-5-1 when defending. Normally our right back stays back as a 3 when attacking but against Villa he used the right back (Jones) as part of the 5 and had Engel hang back more. According to Carrick then the formation was Glover Jones RVDB Clarke Engel Hackney Barlaser Rogers Greenwood Bangura Coburn If Carrick is to be believed, it was more that Hackney and Barlaser stayed in their "pocket" more than usual to shield the defence. If he's not telling porkies, then I think we'll see a similar set up against Chelsea. Main question is whether Clarke can manage two games in 4 days. Possibly not, which leaves us with Glover Jones FRY RVDB Engel Howson Barlaser Hackney Crooks Bangura Coburn I think he'll hope to keep it tight for 70-80 minutes then try and pinch a goal using Lath's pace and the secret weapon that he has kept under wraps for just this occasion: Hoppe! (Well, maybe not Hoppe.) Looked like 3-4-3 out of possession to me. The front three were really close together and looked like they were trying to move as a unit. VDB - Clarke - Engel Jones - Hackney - Barlaser - Bangura Rogers - Coburn - Greenwood 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthernSmoggie 4,443 6.2k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 This game is coming at a rubbish time for us with AFCON/Asia Cup, injuries, and suspensions. Feel like we're on the cusp of getting a strong squad back together but this comes a bit too soon. Saturday was a pretty good dress rehearsal for this - more of the same I guess. If we're being honest though, we need Chelsea to have a bad day. They have some serious quality, I'm particularly worried about Palmer picking up the ball in their no10 position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neverbefore 12,313 26.6k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 19 minutes ago, SouthernSmoggie said: This game is coming at a rubbish time for us with AFCON/Asia Cup, injuries, and suspensions. Feel like we're on the cusp of getting a strong squad back together but this comes a bit too soon. Saturday was a pretty good dress rehearsal for this - more of the same I guess. If we're being honest though, we need Chelsea to have a bad day. They have some serious quality, I'm particularly worried about Palmer picking up the ball in their no10 position. Lucky for us, they do have quite a lot of bad days under poch, so hopefully this is one. I think they are easier to score against than villa so I think we might see us being a bit more adventurous. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce 1,951 1.7k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 39 minutes ago, SouthernSmoggie said: Looked like 3-4-3 out of possession to me. The front three were really close together and looked like they were trying to move as a unit. VDB - Clarke - Engel Jones - Hackney - Barlaser - Bangura Rogers - Coburn - Greenwood There's an interesting piece in Villa news about Carrick's "masterclass". Says that Quote Not only was the [Boro] midfield squeezing the life out of Leander Dendoncker, Boubacar Kamara and McGinn, but the attack of Morgan Rogers, Sam Greenwood and Josh Coburn all playing to the same striker position stopped the passes into the midfield from Unai Emery’s defender They put up the following graphic. (Boro left) Definitely looks like a 3-4-3 with the 4 in midfield setting up as a diamond. Hard to see us not setting up the same way against Chelsea. He's used Hackney in the left-side attacking midfielder role before and Crooks is happiest as a right-sided AM so the team almost picks itself in that formation. Glover RVDB Fry/Clarke Engel Jones Barlaser Howson Bangura Crooks - Coburn - Hackney 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCider24 13,945 18.6k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 (edited) Weird. We've had it on multiple occasions before. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBG42 316 669 Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 1 minute ago, TeaCider24 said: Weird. We've had it on multiple occasions before. Lovely, I can celebrate our last minute winner in the moment now! I don't think we have had it used in home games, Tottenham in the cup didn't have it but we had it at Old Trafford for the Hand of Dunc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllBoro10 2,418 2.9k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Just now, MBG42 said: Lovely, I can celebrate our last minute winner in the moment now! I don't think we have had it used in home games, Tottenham in the cup didn't have it but we had it at Old Trafford for the Hand of Dunc. We have had it previously for Burton at home in the league cup and also Chelsea in the Fa Cup 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCider24 13,945 18.6k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 (edited) 2 minutes ago, MBG42 said: Lovely, I can celebrate our last minute winner in the moment now! I don't think we have had it used in home games, Tottenham in the cup didn't have it but we had it at Old Trafford for the Hand of Dunc. That's because of FA Cups rules and the stage of the competition. We've used it twice at home, and this match is more important that both of them. Seems an odd decision, unless there were temporary installation costs that Gibson has refused to pay this time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnglianRed 6,494 15.8k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 (edited) 8 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said: Weird. We've had it on multiple occasions before. 6 minutes ago, MBG42 said: Lovely, I can celebrate our last minute winner in the moment now! I don't think we have had it used in home games, Tottenham in the cup didn't have it but we had it at Old Trafford for the Hand of Dunc. Well at least we won't have to look forward to 15 minutes of stoppage time due to the ref taking ages to decide they're going to agree with the VAR team. To be honest I'm actually relieved since its being used wrongly in the first place, for decisions it never should be used for. Plus the people entrusted to operate and use the system have frequently shown they can't make correct decisions in line with the rules they've been given. At least we can only blame an incompetent ref for any bad decisions now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erimus74 3,569 3.7k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 4 hours ago, Downsouth said: Not going to kid myself if we get a home draw in the first leg I will be delighted. You never know which Chelsea team will show up in terms of playing ability but even then probably too uch for us to over come. Pet hate I dislike it immensely when we get referred as Borough we are Boro so there! In the 60's & 70's we were ofyen referred to as Borough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borodane 6,812 26.5k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Can't see anything but a comfortable Chelsea win unfortunately. Chelsea have a huge squad with plenty to pick from. Reckon they'll win this 2-0 sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob 5,290 8.2k Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 27 minutes ago, AnglianRed said: Well at least we won't have to look forward to 15 minutes of stoppage time due to the ref taking ages to decide they're going to agree with the VAR team. To be honest I'm actually relieved since its being used wrongly in the first place, for decisions it never should be used for. Plus the people entrusted to operate and use the system have frequently shown they can't make correct decisions in line with the rules they've been given. At least we can only blame an incompetent ref for any bad decisions now. we probs need a few bad decisions go our way so im all for them lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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